Let us get something out of the way first. The only political party in BN that has the means and ways of creating instability is Umno and Umno has never been shy of playing the bully in Malaysian politics. Therefore, if any political party is going to declare emergency rule it is not going to be the BN alliance but rather Umno.

The former Umno strongman does not make flippant comments. He does not just throw things out there to get a rise. Everything he says or does is carefully considered and made with the intention of fulfilling his agenda.

I have made it clear that I do not consider the recent corruption allegations the existential threat facing Malaysia. I wager that if “bangsa” and “agama” did not corrupt the Malaysian system, most Malaysians would give someone like Prime Minister Najib Razak a free pass. He would be given this pass because in the words of Malaysiakini columnist Josh Hong reminding us that naysaying is not enough, “for all its flaws, Malaysia remains a prosperous, relatively efficient and economically vibrant country.”

Mahathir makes the case with his examples of voter fraud, compromised electoral system and vote buying, that even if the opposition wins by a small margin, they would eventually lose, because the Umno hegemon has no intention of ceding the political battlefield to the victors.

In any other civilised country, when a former prime minister makes such an extraordinary claim, the current prime minister, his cabinet and political allies would rebut the claim. They would assure the citizens of their country, that they would abide by the democratic process and that the rule of law and principles of democracy would ensure a smooth transition of power.

This is not the case in Malaysia. The Najib regime has made no comment and indeed the racial and religious rhetoric has escalated to the point that the Umno establishment has enacted laws that would give them legal authority to rule in emergency until such time that they feel confident enough to resume the facade of democracy in this country.

There is no point talking about the 1MDB scandal as if the current regime has any intention of conforming to democratic norms because scandals such as these depend on institutional integrity and voting demographics that, regardless of partisanship, hold politicians accountable for their deeds in office.

In my piece ‘Malaysian Official 1 should resign but won’t’, I wrote - “Najib loyalists are wallowing in the fact that Najib’s authoritarian measures ensure his political stability because there are no democratic or legitimate means to oust him from office.